During the first year of the Neuroscience Graduate Program, courses of the core curriculum that have been taken include: Cellular Neuroscience, Neuropharmacology, Biostatistics, and Systems Neuroscience. Research training has been gained in the form of laboratory rotations. The first rotation in Dr. Jean Bidlack's lab provided an opportunity to examine the opioid binding properties of a novel codeine analog. The second rotation in Dr. Shey-Shing Sheu's lab was undertaken to gain experience in using fluorescent probes to study second messenger systems such as cytosolic calcium and protein kinase C. Key Words: Signal transduction